Lois Lebar: Education That Is Christian Essay (Book Review)

Evangelical Christian education has faced a time of crisis nowadays. Lois Lebar, the professor of Christian education points out in her book Education That Is Christian that “Anti-Christian values place tremendous pressure on families, churches and schools” (1995, 9). Christian education needs to be renewed as far as technological sophistication and programmatic innovations are necessary to be included in the process of the study. Lebar writes about such changes as the revolution: ‘a revolutionary Gospel in a revolutionary age calls for revolutionary teaching that revolutionizes lives” (1995, 287).

Lebar describes in her book the model of education combined modernization and the conservatism presented by the evangelical subculture in the mid-20^th century. Taking into account Sunday schools and churches where dead formalism and dry orthodoxy thrive, she concludes that the presentation of information is done in an inappropriate way and produces spiritual transformation and development. Instead of teaching the Bible, the teachers of Sunday schools organize different “What-do-you-think?’ discussions to draw attention to the social issues ignoring the power of the Word of God to change the world and change lives (Lebar 1995, 200).

Lebar condemns those educational systems where only inner factors or only outer factors are emphasized. She rebels against the so-called progressive teaching that ignores the authoritative Word of God and the power of the Holy Spirit. Lebar believes that the teaching of the Bible is the absolute necessity of our civilization. According to Lebar’s teaching, the Bible is not just teaching its content. The Bible is not only a book full of historical facts and preaches, it is the sort of a guide in our life. Every educated person should be acquainted with the Bible. But knowing biblical facts is not necessary to allow the Word of God to influence the learners’ inner world. It is senseless just reading or learning by heart verses from the Bible without thinking over how it may influence and change our life. Lebar is against learning by heart verses from the Bible without fully understanding. There is no sense in such kind of cramming. Good Bible teaching should be interesting, exuberant and captivating. Many children don’t like reading the Bible because they associate it with boring lessons at school. Such strict methods of teaching like cramming and punishment disincline the learners to study.

The Bible should be transmitted in our life; only in this case it will have the power and may influence our life and the whole world. Lebar points out: “Only as pupils search and find the content that has a bearing on current life will it enrich and change a life” (1995,243). The methods of Jesus Christ should be practiced in Christian education. Jesus Christ not only taught people how to behave but he set a pattern himself. In fact, he taught not only with the help of words but with the help of actions. People could observe with their own eyes how the Word of God changed people’s life. Lebar provides the method of teaching from the practice to the theory not from the theory to the practice as was accepted before.

Lebar has a strategic vision of teaching people who are the Disciples of Christ with the help of the Bible. She writes: “The solution of today’s problems is not more glamorous entertainments in the church, more trick gadgets, more contests with more expensive prizes, but more Christian leaders in whom Christ can work in His own way in the power of the Spirit” (Lebar 1995, 287). There are so few Christian leaders who seek to impel people to be Christ’s disciples. Modern situation of Christian Education makes people be alert. Society becomes more immoral because of the lack of Christian education. Many people have never read the Bible and they don’t understand the sense of the Word of God in their life. Lebar emphasizes that the Word of God should be accessible to everyone and the teachers should do it with the connection to life. Christian education should be interesting and captivating. The teachers should help the learners to observe the results of their education in their lives.

There are a lot of different theories providing different factors improving the process of education. Unlike Lebar, behaviorists ignore the inner factors in the learner promoting external behavior through conditioning. Lebar objects that Jesus’ teaching should firstly influence inner factors which change outer behavior. The Word of God should be understood not only with the mind but with the heart. Developmental secular educators have another problem concerning the dilemma between content-centered and student-centered strategies of education. They believe that the student’s inner development depends on interactions with the outer world. On the contrary, Lebar points out that the inner development of the pupils is possible only with the help of interaction between the written Word of God and the student’s life situation. Lebar finds the golden middle between the behaviorism of the day and the rampant existentialism.

Lebar thinks that students should not be given the ultimate freedom and free goal for self-actualization as well as not involved in the process of study. Passive behavior of the learners complicates the process of study. The study has a success only in that case when there will be a collaboration between learners and teachers. She makes emphasis on the importance of the internal needs of students and their motivation. Motivation consists of not only the development of the pupils’ interest but also of creating the atmosphere for the active cooperation of the life and Word.

The needs of the students are described in Lebar’s book as God-given ones. This divinely motive force endowed by heaven should involve the emotions, the mind, the will and the heart. She writes: “If we are going to work with the Lord to change pupils inwardly, we must begin where the change is needed, with what already controls their behavior. What is it that prompts our actions? It is our needs, our strong innate drives, which the Almighty Himself has put within us” (Lebar 1995, 173). Lebar emphasizes that the teaching should be started with the felt needs of the learner and then move to the Scripture. God has endowed us with the hunger for knowledge which should be satisfied during our life. We should discover the world through teaching.

The main Lebar’s contribution to the development of education is her philosophy of Christian education which is both methodologically progressive and Word-centered. The main goal of Christian education is adapting developmental educational theory to a biblical philosophy. Modern students are usually described as listeners not the participants of the process of study. Lebar makes the emphasis that the process of study should be an active process of discovery. She points out that “teachers should not do for students what they can more profitably do themselves”. Students should have their own interaction with the Word rather than use their teachers’ experience. Lebar describes the process of education as “the good tour guide, where the teacher must be able to serve as a knowledgeable guide and fellow pilgrim without diminishing the students’ personal experiences with the Lord” (1995, 173).

Lebar’s book Education That Is Christian was revolutionary when it was firstly published and overturned the teaching philosophy of Christian education. Today people don’t pay enough attention to Christian education. There is an urgent need today for this kind of education. There are a lot of main factors which are necessary for a successful Christian education covered in this book. It is useful for every teacher and even every learner to read this book taking into consideration the importance of the Word of God in our life.

Although Lebar presents so many factors which are necessary for a successful Christian education, there are very few examples of how to do it. Providing the methodology of teaching from “the practice to the theory” she doesn’t follow this method writing this book. There is not any practice in her book. The readers fully understand what is very important for Christian education but they are not able to catch the idea of how to realize all these principles. The main open question is How to do this? The realization of Lebar’s teaching philosophy depends on the group of learners and other inner and outer factors. Every case should be observed particularly.

Despite the fact, that there is an open question, Lebar’s contribution to the teaching is invaluable. Many teachers use her methodology nowadays and have success. All people should pay attention to this book in our time when the crisis of Christian education is becoming strained. We should save our souls and lives.

Reference List

Lebar, E.L. Education That Is Christian. USA: Chariot Victor Publishing, 1995.